Homo Naledi: A Bite Out of History [Paleo Talks EP60]

Paleo Talks is hosted by ETSU Paleontologists Dr. Blaine Schubert, Chris Widga and David Moscato, with new guests and topics each week. This episode's guest is Juliet Brophy.

This episode was hosted on Facebook Live via Zoom.

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[eyeinthebox]

Great show, I appreciate the work done in Grey. Thanks!

[davewilkie]

High relevant are the size and shoulder flexibility of Naledi in navigating the superman crawl?

[branscombeR]

Brilliant! Thanks to Juliet and all who organised this. My question would have been ... has anyone yet tried carrying a specimen body/weighted sack with dummy appendages through the labyrinth to the lip of the chute to determine how much effort/how many people it would have required to dump it into the chamber? (I guess the answer would be no). The diet analysis will be interesting as Juliet said there was no sign of caries/gum disease or extractions. R (Australia)

[oscresson]

I wonder if Naledi lived in the larger rooms near the entrances. Have they dug down to what was the floor 300, 000 years ago? Or could they have lived in trees for safety? (On Dec 1, 2022, Lee Burger reported evidence of fire and hearths but said it doesn't look like living sites.)

[prisoner_of_mother_england]

The Superman chute... Where you shove anyone you've had enough of?! clearly they were not climbing back out .

[robintrehaeven]

It's hard to gainsay the morphology that indicates that Naledi would have been a more efficient climber than Homo Sapiens. This however begs he question: what/where did they climb. The Cradle of Humankind 300, 000 years ago wasn't much different ecologically than it is today surely? Bushveld with isolated clumps of scrubby trees, hardly suitable for more than small groups of hominims to climb into at night for limited protection from predators. Limited because predators such as leopards would have had little difficulty in climbing these trees themselves. There are more heavily forested areas further east in South Africa. Could Naledi have spread/moved from the East. Could it have used the Rising Star caves as a kind of Stonehenge. Somewhere that had ritual significance that they traveled to, but did not live at. Or is that too much to expect of a such a small brained creature?

[richb]

This was a great discussion however much is already out of date. Naledi is going to challenge and change many long held scientific beliefs.

[DarwinianUniversal]

Here's a theory. Maybe this creature was nocturnal and spent the daytime hours hiding in the cave. With its ability for climbing, coupled with an ability to navigate in low light environments it was able to explore and navigate the depths of the cave.

In summary, a creature spending a great deal of time in the cave, add to that climbing ability and being comfortable in dark environments due to their nocturnal nature. Suddenly finding individuals down there doesn't seem so unlikely.

Add to this predentary pressure from cats or other humanoids that can pursue Naledi into the cave system. Then the remote depths of the cave become a natural refuge where predators couldn't or wouldn't follow.

I'm not saying I believe this, but if outside-the-box thinking is invited, then give this some consideration?

[sharonhearne]

Could this have been a regressed species hunted by other hominids as prey? There was the implication this could have been an extended “family group” isolating dead family group members?

[Davemmmason]

HARD TO REACH FOR A HUMAN NOT 80 LB NALEDI